Is Your Thanksgiving Turkey Stuffed With Antibiotics?

If you bought your Thanksgiving turkey this year from a grocery store, there’s a good chance it was raised using antibiotics as a feed additive.

In a new report, the Chicago-based nonprofit Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) surveyed the top 20 U.S. turkey producers about their use of antibiotics and the growth drug ractopamine. In their responses to the organization, which advocates humane farming practices, only two companies stated that they do not allow their producers to routinely use antibiotics related to those used in human medicine either for disease prevention or growth promotion. Those two companies are Plainville Farms and
Tyson Foods. Plainville Farms was the only company to report that it exclusively sells meat from turkeys that have not received antibiotics. And Tyson said it only uses so-called medically important antibiotics in turkey production to treat sick animals.

You probably know that antibiotics are drugs used to fight bacterial infections in people (they’re not effective against viruses like the flu or common cold). Antibiotics are also used to keep animals healthy and prevent disease, but they’re often given as growth enhancers to bulk up animals, too. This practice has come under scrutiny recently in the United States as growing evidence suggests that food produced with antibiotics poses a threat to human health.

Taken over a prolonged period of time, harmful bacteria develop resistance to the antibiotics designed to treat them, allowing the bacteria to spread and grow. As a result, these infections become harder to treat, becoming so-called “superbugs.” The overuse and abuse of antibiotics in hospitals and other healthcare settings is known to be a main cause of antibiotic resistance in people. But now, some doctors and researchers worry that antibiotic use in agriculture is at least partly responsible for this problem.

Aside from Plainville Farms and Tyson Foods, FACT’s report found that another four companies prohibit the use of antibiotics for growth promotion – Norbest, Jennie-O,
Cargill and
Foster Farms – but not for disease prevention. Meanwhile, eight companies said they raise some turkeys to be marketed under a “raised without antibiotics” or organic label.

The survey also asked turkey producers about their use of ractopamine, which isn’t an antibiotic. Instead, it's a type of drug called a beta agonist that has effects similar to those produced by adrenaline. Ractopamine has been banned by many countries, including those in the European Union, but can be used legally in the United States. The good news is, nine of the top 20 turkey producers (Butterball, Jennie-O, Foster Farms, Cargill, Tyson Foods, Plainville Farms,
Perdue, Prestage Farms and Norbest) reported that they do not use ractopamine in their turkeys. But the other 11 companies did not respond to questions about ractopamine use, and FACT wasn’t able to find any information about the drug on their websites.

Government agencies and other health organizations have been trying to educate people about antibiotic resistance, but recent research shows that they haven’t been doing a very good job. Still, some consumers are getting the message because the market is starting to react to what consumers want. For example, industry giants like Perdue and McDonald’s recently vowed to phase out chicken raised with antibiotics. Other producers and restaurants – and even educational and medical institutions that serve food – are going antibiotic-free, too. Here’s a recently updated list by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Below is a handy chart by FACT displaying the data the group collected.